The latest Shadowbox Live show,
Nightmare on Front Street, doesn’t necessarily take risks or break new ground, but it
offers enough satisfaction to make for a pleasant evening.

The format is typical for the company: Rock songs alternate with sketches and occasional video
pieces.

The focus is on horror, mostly of the benign variety, with the sketches using chiefly scary
movies as their touchstones.

Many rely on the comic chemistry among veteran players — while integrating new players in
smaller parts.

A new edition of the
Sneak a Peek movie show lets a wry Julie Klein and a daffily enthusiastic David Whitehouse
play off each other as co-hosts while serving parodies of children’s shows, including a hilarious
Stacie Boord as a murderous Dora the Explorer.

Whitehouse and Jimmy Mak play variations on their pre-

adolescents as “campfire boys” discussing horror movies, while Klein, Boord and Anita McFarren
play out a female twist on the boys’ get-together: They summon Bloody Mary (Edelyn Parker) to a
game of “truth or dare” at a slumber party.

Other sketches — including, unfortunately, the first and last — are less successful.

The opening superhero skit has a few funny lines but drags on; the concluding one suggests that
the long series of
Dr. Mystery sketches, with puppets and sound effects, has been mined for all the humor
that it is capable of.

Guitarist Matthew Hahn enlivens most of the musical numbers, which are generally tight and
well-produced. The Halloween theme allows for excessively flamboyant costumes.

The songs could use more variety and an occasional lighter touch: Almost all are intense and
angry, and the lyrics often unintelligible.

Some of the more effective are Stephanie Shull’s dynamic
I Put a Spell on You, Tom Cardinal’s cryptic
White Room and Leah Haviland’s stark
Mr. Brightside.

The production demonstrates the troupe’s strengths and weaknesses: an ensemble whose members
work seamlessly together but sometimes coast on past successes.